Union timecards: where the day's cost actually comes from

The day rate is a guarantee, not an hourly rate

On a union show, the day rate buys a guaranteed number of hours — typically an 8-hour day, with overtime after that. The day rate and the guarantee are separate facts: a flat weekly rate carries its own weekly guarantee, and a daily rate carries its hourly floor. The guarantee is what the production owes even if the day runs short.

The first consequence is that the rate card's number only describes the first eight hours. Every hour past the guarantee is priced by the agreement's premium bands, and the premium hours are where the day's cost actually moves.

Premium bands, sixth days and seventh days

Overtime rarely costs a flat 1.5x. Agreements band the hours: time-and-a-half for the first block past the guarantee, double time after the next threshold, and golden time — where an hour can cost as much as the day rate itself — past the extreme thresholds. Each band multiplies a base rate, so the same two extra hours cost wildly different amounts at hour nine versus hour sixteen.

The calendar adds its own premiums. A sixth consecutive day worked, a seventh day, and designated holidays carry multipliers regardless of the day's hours — the premium attaches to the calendar fact, not to the clock. Turning around late also costs: turnaround violations can convert straight hours into premium hours retroactively for the affected worker.

• •Overtime bands: 1.5x, then 2x, then golden time past the extreme thresholds — each on the base rate.
• •Sixth and seventh consecutive days and holidays carry their own multipliers.
• •Short turnaround violations can re-price hours already worked.

Meal penalties

Agreements don't just promise a meal break — they promise it within a window after the crew's call time, and a set duration. Missing the window costs a penalty per worker per half hour of delay, escalating as the delay grows. Penalties are computed per person from the day's actual meal in and out times, which is why the times logged on set matter to payroll hours later.

Meal penalties are labor cost, not a fine: they flow through the payroll as wages, which means fringes ride on top of them. A production that treats penalties as a nuisance line item undercounts labor every time lunch runs late.

Allowances and rentals ride on the card

The timecard is also where the day's non-wage money attaches: kit rentals and box rentals for crew who bring equipment, car allowances and per diems, and any miscellaneous taxable payments. Some of these are taxable wages subject to fringes; others — like per diems and mileage — are non-taxable reimbursements added to the gross but excluded from taxable wages. The distinction changes payroll taxes and fund contributions, not just the total.

Fund contributions are computed from the same record: hours worked drive the flat per-hour funds, and taxable wages drive the percentage funds. That's why the timecard, not the deal memo, is the source document for the union remittance.

How Clarice handles this

Clarice models timecards with the full structure: regular hours, overtime hours and rates, box rentals, car allowances, and separate taxable and non-taxable miscellaneous payments — so gross pay and taxable wages are distinct numbers and fringes compute against the right base. Timecards move through an approval workflow before they're paid, and the project's union category selects the rule pack that governs the day — turnaround, meal windows and premium bands — so the production day sheet flags the violations while the day is still running, not at payroll.

Remittances draw from the same timecards, so what was bid, what was worked, and what was reported to the funds come from one record. Union driver fringes sync from the vehicle budget lines onto the payment records automatically, keeping the payroll reporting aligned with the budget's projection.